So why is it that the British, American and EU governments haven't done the same with the boards and executives of all the banks that have somehow managed to 'lose' hundreds of billions of their investors pounds/dollars/euros while simultaneously ending up very rich? And how likely is it that they WILL be locked up when Cameron appoints a former hedge fund manager as his Party fund-raiser?

It is the same as with the Indian Navy vs British Navy

We taught them well. Unfortunately we have forgotten what we taught them ourselves.

As a result British Navy does H&S assessment (and th German lets the pirates free altogether) while the Indian sink 'em. Oh and by the way, once a ship is captured and under pirate command the maritime law says that it _IS_ a pirate ship (no such concept as collateral damage concept there).

So we should remember what we taught them in the first place. If the government has gone as far as rescuing a company the first thing which should happen is for the entire management and accounting to go and pick up some soap in the showers on one of HMPS (her majesty's prison ships).

There are very many poor (relative) investors in the stock market - it's not just institutional investors in Satyam. You'd end up with a riot - these guys may be safer in prison.

Now the forensic accountants will be all over the company and I'm sure you'll see quite a few more people leave/get charged. It sounds like Enron all over again.

I think when these scandals happen - the Auditors should also go to prison - they charge large fees and should do more than simply rubber-stamp the results presented to them.

These jokers are in jail because they were complicit in fraud. Reporting nonexistent profits and inflating available funds for several years (AFAIK).

If the boards of all the banks that have lost money are found to be complicit in fraud, I am sure they will also be punished in the same way. The problem is that in most cases they cannot legally be held accountable. Fund managers claim ignorance [of incorrectly evaluated risk levels], oversight authorities claim faulty risk evaluation models, and so on.

I don't know anything more than what I read in the headlines so I may be completely wrong

Perhaps because it's nothing like the same thing. Compare it to Enron and you're there. Oddly enough, their execs WERE jailed

all governments took a similar line with dodgy banks and the finance sector (putting the board, senior managers and high bonus earners with possible malpractice) into the clink for a few days pending investigations then I am sure we'd see the finance sector cleaning up it's act.

Seizure of corporate assets, chattels & belongings along with those of the people put in the clink would also appear to be an equally strong incentive.

The beauty is it is a "suspicion" approach rather than a "charged" approach and both seem good disincentives for putting fingers in the till!